Ogden challenges budget critics to present an alternative

Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden is challenging those who don’t want to use rainy day fund money – or have other problems with how his panel’s proposed spending plan is financed — to come up with an alternative.

“I’ve got a lot of people telling me what’s wrong with this. Now it’s time to step up and tell me, what are you going to do to fix it?” Ogden said. “I would hope that the people that are criticizing what we’ve done to date will at least offer some constructive alternatives.”

The Bryan Republican said he doesn’t expect Senate action on the $176.5 billion, two-year budget proposal before next week, although he said he’d go with the measure whenever he can muster the necessary two-thirds vote for debate.

The proposal got votes from two Democrats and all but one Republican on the Finance Committee. But Ogden has been struggling to get the 21 votes he needs to bring up the measure for debate by the full Senate.

Some Republicans don’t like a provision allowing another dip into the rainy day fund, while many Democrats oppose it because they say its spending falls short of the minimum necessary to serve the growing state.

Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, the Republican Finance member who voted agaist the proposal due to the rainy day spending, said yesterday he was working to find other non-tax revenue and additional cuts to replace the rainy day money.

Without the backstop allowing the expenditure of $3 billion from the rainy day fund if money doesn’t become available elsewhere, Ogden said he would have no Democratic votes for the bill. Democrats hold 12 Senate spots so some Democratic support is necessary to meet the two-thirds rule.

Ogden said there had been no discussion of suspending the two-thirds rule for the budget.

“I’m not planning for failure, and I think doing away with the two-thirds rule would be a form of failure,” Ogden said.

Ogden said he has asked Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to begin bringing up for debate bills that are related to the budget.

They include Senate Bill 1811, a bill to speed up tax collections, defer state payments and make other moves to yield additional revenue; SB22, a school finance revamp; and SB23, making changes in human services programs.

Ogden had hoped to have a budget back to the House by May 1 so negotiations could start.

“The longer it’s out there, the people that don’t like it have more time to attack. So yeah, I’m worried about that. But the reality is the reality,” Ogden said. “We don’t have the votes yet, so we’re going to keep working.”

Ogden wouldn’t give a total of how many he has for the proposal.

“I have votes for the budget if we use the rainy day fund. I have votes for the budget if we don’t use the rainy day fund. I have votes for the budget if we spend more money,” Ogden said. “But I don’t have a bill between the foul lines yet.”